Called RISE-6G, the project has four objectives (see below) and the collaboration will design, prototype and test smart and energy-sustainable technological advances based on reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS), that will enable programmable control and shaping of the wireless propagation environment.
The project is expected to last three years, piloted by CEA-Leti with 13 consortium partners from seven countries representing the academic, research and industrial sectors. They include NEC Laboratories Europe GMBH as the technical coordinator and network vendor; Orange and Telecom Italia (TIM) as telecom operators; and Greenerwave as the technology provider.
“Our mission is to enable this disruptive new concept as a service for the wireless environment by dynamically controlling wireless communication for local, brief and energy-efficient, high-capacity communications,” said Emilio Calvanese Strinati, RISE-6G project coordinator and 6G future wireless research director at CEA-Leti, The government-funded technological research organisation in France.
“The system also will ensure energy efficiency, localisation accuracy and privacy guarantees against eavesdroppers, while accommodating specific regulations on spectrum use and restrained electromagnetic field (EMF) emissions," Calvanese Strinati added.
RISE-6G's objectives include:
Defining novel network architectures and operation strategies incorporating multiple reconfigurable intelligent surfaces;
Characterising the new system’s fundamental limits, while capitalising on the proposed realistic and validated radio-wave propagation models;
Designing solutions to enable online trade between high-capacity connectivity, energy efficiency, EMF exposure and localisation accuracy based on dynamically programmable wireless propagation environments, while accommodating specific legislation and regulation requirements on spectrum use, data protection, and electromagnetic field (EMF) emission; and
To prototype-benchmark proposed innovation via two complementary trials with verticals, at the Fiat Industry 4.0 production site and SNCF train station.
Founded in 1967, Leti, a technology research institute at CEA, specialises in miniaturisation technologies that enable smart, energy-efficient and secure solutions for industry.
“RISE-6G will lend itself to a revolutionary flow of the current network paradigm by contributing with novel technologies and strategic business plans that will have a remarkable societal impact in the near future,” Calvanese Strinati said.
